


shining, she was, like moonlight

by brokke



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Aliens, Angst, CoE Fix-It AU, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, i just wanted Anwen's uncles it's nothing deeper than that, with no indication of how It was Fixed!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26396011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokke/pseuds/brokke
Summary: “Well, it wasn’t going to go smoothly, was it?”Jack met his eye. “No,” he sighed. “I guess this is overdue.”
Relationships: Gwen Cooper & Anwen Williams, Jack Harkness & Ianto Jones & Anwen Williams, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 10
Kudos: 53
Collections: Torchwood Fan Fests: Bingo Fest 2020





	shining, she was, like moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> For the Torchwood Bingo Fest 2020! Prompts: Anwen, CoE fix-it AU.  
> Title is from the story Gwen tells Anwen in Miracle Day.

“Stop! _Baby!_ ”

Shouting over the noise of the blasts, Jack struggled to get their alien assailant’s attention. He’d tried and failed a few times now, and was unsure if they could understand what he was saying in the first place. He hadn’t had the chance to get a good look; every time he made a move towards the end of the wall they were hiding behind, otherworldly weapons were aimed his way. 

“Ceasefire!” he attempted.

Ianto, sheltered behind the wall next to Jack, raised an eyebrow. “Ceasefire...?”

Jack gave an exasperated shrug in response. “How 'bout you try?”

“I’ve got the baby, Jack.”

He glanced at Anwen, held tight in Ianto’s arms. The kid had a wide-eyed smile on her face, oblivious to the whole affair; whether she was still too young to pick up on his and Ianto’s panic, or had inherited Gwen’s cool-in-the-face-of-death demeanour, he didn’t have the first clue. Still - she was taking the unexpected encounter the best out of the three of them. 

“‘No, Gwen, don’t you worry, nothing’ll go wrong’-”

“Ianto.”

“ _Maybe_ if we’d stayed at home-”

“How were we to know?”

“Well, it wasn’t going to go smoothly, was it?”

Jack met his eye. “No,” he sighed. “I guess this is overdue.”

They hadn’t expected an easy time of it when Gwen had handed Anwen over for the day. With Rhys away and a living room to paint, it was the least they could do to help out; plus, it wasn’t like either of them were inexperienced with kids. They just happened to be susceptible to alien interference. Even on the weekends.

Moving towards the end of the wall, Jack tried the shouting approach again. There’s-” he paused, ducking to avoid a beam of light that flew too close for comfort. “There’s a baby, stop shooting-”

A section of the wall crumbled when another beam made an impact. Jack shuffled away from the resulting gap, leaning closer to Ianto, moving instinctively to shield them both.

“This isn’t working,” Ianto said, shaking his hand away from Anwen’s as her fingers grasped at his cuff. 

“You don’t say…”

Jack risked a glance at the advancing troop. Five, maybe six members of a species whose name he couldn’t recall, making their way down the street at a steady pace. There was no doubt that they were after Ianto and himself; they approached slowly, perhaps wary of whatever weapons they may have, but approaching all the same. Their motive was anyone’s guess. 

He inwardly cursed his sentimentality. A Webly would be useless against this. And Ianto, adamant in making a kid-friendly environment, wasn’t carrying. 

“Think they speak English?” he asked Ianto, who shrugged when Jack turned back to face him. 

“Would they have a translator?” 

“With that kind of tech, maybe.”

Ianto re-adjusted his grip on Anwen. She gave up with his cuff and began an assault on his tie, dragging it towards her in a soft grip, of which Ianto didn’t appear to notice. To Jack, he looked to be weighing up their options. Said options were rather limited; in an exposed street corner with no option of running, they were hoping for Anwen’s presence to gain some mercy. Not the standard Torchwood approach.

“Well, get out there,” Ianto said.

One thing for it, then.

Jack straightened and stepped out into the road. He faced the aliens and moved cautiously, his hands raised above his head

“Listen to me.” He dodged the next beam of light that came his way, shielding his face with an arm. The weapons were powerful but their aim left something to be desired. “We’ve got a kid. Infant. Small, understand? _Ah-_ ”

A beam grazed his shoulder before he could stumble out of its path. He heard the hiss of his singed coat, ignoring the sting of pain that followed, biting his tongue and pressing it down.

“Look!”

He motioned to Ianto, who emerged from behind the wall, with Anwen laughing at the sudden movement. Jack pointed in her direction with his heart in his throat; as reluctant as he was to expose her, the aliens were unlikely to stop for any other reason. 

After a drawn-out few seconds, the figure at the front of the formation shouted what seemed like an order. 

There was a series of mechanical buzzing. Their weapons were lowered. 

Jack took a shaky breath.

“Can we chat about this? Without the… lasers?” he asked, raising his voice just enough to carry up the road. 

It took a few moments for the aliens to respond, in which Ianto stood frozen with a giggling Anwen.

“ _We seek correspondence with the leader of the Torchwood Institute,_ ” a tinny voice replied. Okay. Translator.

“Speaking.” He sent a subtle nod to Ianto, who made a move away from the area, shielding Anwen as Jack kept attention on himself. 

“ _Do you guarantee peaceful negotiations?_ ”

“You have my word.”

* * *

It was mid-afternoon when they dropped Anwen back home.

“How was it?” Gwen asked the moment she opened the door, greeting the three with a smile.

“She was an angel,” Jack replied, and handed Anwen to Gwen’s outstretched arms. “As always.” He rubbed at his shoulder in a quiet attempt to cover the new damage to his coat; he and Ianto had agreed on the way over not to share the morning’s adventure with her. 

The resolution had been painless, regarding the return of a lost possession. The species had been an inconvenient shoot-first-talk-later type.

Gwen turned into the hall, letting the others follow her in, holding Anwen over her shoulder Jack met her eye and grinned. She returned the smile, eyes all scrunched up, chewing on a finger.

He put his finger to his lips in a silent _shh._

The Saturday invasion would be their little secret. 

* * *

Gwen leaned back on the sofa, feeling the dust sheet crunch underneath her. The room was a haphazard mess of painting tools; it wasn’t a suitable environment for a baby, but she took a few minutes to recharge before clearing it up.

“Have a good day?” she muttered, idly stroking Anwen’s cheek with a finger. Her half-asleep smile was the most perfect thing imaginable. 

From the front of the house, she heard the SUV start up and drive away.

There was only so much she could talk about with those two; sharing their experiences could be more of a hindrance than a comfort. She couldn’t help but feel as if what she held inside didn’t match up with their... trauma. For want of a word more in denial.

There was only one person who helped when the secrets couldn't remain as such.

Rhys didn’t approve. But Rhys wasn’t here.

“You know,” she began, “there was this one time when your uncles and I-” 

Jack didn’t like to be called _uncle._ Gwen understood.

“When we investigated this house down in Penylan. It was weird, it was, all full of ghosts - or apparitions, or whatever you’d call them. Anyway, we all got trapped inside this place when we found your Uncle Ianto. And Jack, well, it turned out he’d owned it…”

* * *

They hadn’t spoken on the drive back. 

Jack gripped the steering wheel with a distant look on his face, putting a little too much force on the break when they came to a stop, staying put even when he shut off the engine.

And Ianto waited.

Jack took a breath, shoulders tense, the words spilling out. “How does Gwen trust me with her?”

“Of course she would.”

Shaking his head, Jack pulled the keys from the ignition. 

“Well. She does,” Ianto continued. “And no matter what you tell yourself, that’s how it is.”

They’d be foolish to imagine that Gwen wouldn’t understand. She was Torchwood, and whilst they both wished they’d found a different solution, they would stand by Jack’s decision. 

“Every kid in the street is justification-” Jack’s voice broke and he turned away, glaring at the dashboard. “For what I did. But I don’t want it to be.” 

“What _we_ did.”

Jack looked back at Ianto, seeing his half-smile that wasn’t a smile at all.

He reached out and took Jack’s hand in his, giving it a squeeze as if to get rid of the tension. “You know you’re not alone in this.”

Ianto made a mental note to talk to mention it to Gwen as he stepped out of the car. They did what they had to do, and they did it together. He and Gwen would make sure Jack knew that.

Even if Steven showed up in every nightmare.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to @suzie-costello's gifset of jack being called 'uncle' in 2 horrific circumstances so yeah that's a headcanon now


End file.
